I have a problem with the state keeping a record of who you have voted for. Imagine the potential for abuse. Even if you think it couldnt happen in the US, these people are going to hawke their machines in other countries and you can bet their use in the US will be part of the sales collateral.

@Philip Kahn: Are you sure the oversight wasn't deliberate to provoke this very comment thread? My first reaction was 'but what about the Chickenasauruses?" I didnt say anything because I was sure someone else would... this is Io9.

@Captain_Tripps: to paraphrase: Ya canna change the laws of physics Capt'n!!

@Segador: why should we need to understand everything for us both to have stumbled upon the same fundamental properties of matter and energy? And having made the same discoveries why wouldn't we exploit them in the same way?

@mordicai: I guess it depends on whether you're the messer or messee. Its always more fun to be the messer.

@mordicai: no, they would continue to broadcast in EM the same way people continue to trawl brightly coloured string tied to shiny things across rivers despite the efficiency of fish farms.

@pz: I thought it had to be either 'within 1000 light years of' or '1000 light years towards' the galactic centre because I figured super massive black holes aren't the best real estate to set up an alien civilisation .

@Segador: Assuming the laws of physics are pretty much constant, I think you'll find that their tech uncannily resembles ours and fundamentally functions the same way. Once we get past the superficial differences bug eyed monster physiology impose on the input/output devices, that is.

@corpore-metal: They were still talking about radio.

@eblingmis: Or tax the living bejezus out of the current fuels.

But, dont the pieces fall one at a time?

@theray76: Did the Simpsons change? I assumed was I who had changed while the simpsons remains the same.

@Ghost_in_the_Machine: By the time I got around to trig ('84) calculators were allowed. But I did get to hear my father carry on about how in his day they used tables, (not to mention the bit about walking 5miles to school; barefoot; Up hill, Both ways; In the snow; Wearing a loin cloth.)

@TheAncient: Japanese is so last century.

@starbuck13: Thats OK. I dont think anyone does. Certainly not me.

@TheAncient: 好 好

@thevpuli: why? why not!

@failtroll_is_fail: I'd be more worried about friction blisters.

@Ghost_in_the_Machine: what no slide rule?

@starbuck13: How do you know you share a reality with anyone? Or that if you do, how do you know you share exactly, without deviation the same reality?